


Where kids are animals

by willsolacepositivity



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Riordanverse - Freeform, the lost trio, the wilderness school
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:14:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26270221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/willsolacepositivity/pseuds/willsolacepositivity
Summary: Piper and Leo meet at the Wilderness School, but something about the place isn't quite right...
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	1. The first day

**Author's Note:**

> This one is really short and doesn't have that much of a plot, besides exposition. Very little proofreading, we die like Leo Valdez- it'll get fixed later

Piper sat inside the big grey bus, braiding a few strands of her hair. Yeah, she had been really stupid, talking the guy into giving her a car. But she didn’t deserve to be sent to a correctional facility, for God’s sake!  
The bus pulled up to a building that was even bigger and grayer than the bus she was on. The driver wearily pushed a button, and the bus’s doors opened. Piper stood up and made her way up to the courtyard, eyeing the sign that said WILDERNESS SCHOOL in blocky letters. It seemed that everyone else, her obnoxiously loud new classmates, took this as a sign to yell and bicker (and briefly scuffle) louder than ever. Piper twisted the sleeve of her jacket.  
“Ugh, this is gonna suck.”  
“Sure is.” Piper looked around with a start. Standing to her side was a short, Hispanic guy with curly brown hair. He was wearing a battered army jacket, and it was obvious that he was as ADHD as Piper by the way his hands nervously moved, ducking in and out of its pockets.  
“But hey, it’s not supposed to be, huh? ‘correctional facility-’” he made air quotes- “not a zoo.”  
“You sure about that? Some of the kids here act like monkeys. Well, Welcome to the Wilderness school,”  
“Where kids are the animals,” The short guy added, and Piper actually laughed.  
“Yeah. What’s your name, anyway?”  
“Leo. Leo Valdez.” He held out a hand, which Piper noticed was smeared with something like machine oil. She took it.  
“Piper, um... Smith.” He seemed nice, but Piper really didn’t want to make her identity public.  
“Smith? Seriously?” Leo narrowed his eyes. “Come on, you’ve got to be better at lying than that. Spill the family name beans, Piper.”  
“All right.” She sighed. “McLean. Piper McLean.” Leo just looked at her in confusion.  
“Should I know that name?”  
“No.” She said quickly.  
“So, what you in for?”  
“Oh, me? I got into a bit of trouble with a used car salesman.” Leo whistled.  
“You stole a car?”  
“No, I just convinced him to give it to me.” This caused Leo to laugh.  
“That’s the worst cover story ever! Maybe you are a terrible liar.” Piper was about to protest that she was telling the truth, but she knew it would be useless. No one believed her anyways, and Leo wouldn’t either, no matter how cool he seemed.  
“What about you?”  
“Ran away from a few foster homes, no big deal. They barely even missed me.”  
“Oh.” Piper had no idea what to say, but luckily Leo did.  
“Here, look at this.” He held up what appeared to be a cardboard walnut covered in bits of wire. He tossed it into the crowd. Piper had expected it to just hit someone in the back, but to Piper’s amazement, the bits of wire unfurled into cardboard wings. The small projectile hovered in the center of the crowd, then exploded in a shower of confetti.  
The effect was instant. Everyone stopped what they were doing to look around wildly at the bits of colored paper settling on their new classmates’ shoulders. Then, they started blaming each other for the deed, the accusations getting wilder and wilder.  
Piper and Leo just stood back and laughed. “Dude, that was amazing! How did you do that?” Leo just shrugged.  
“I’m a special boy.” His troublemaker grin stretched even wider, if that was possible.  
“Hey!” They were shushed by an incredibly short man with a goatee, wearing a gym uniform. “You look like cupcakes with those sprinkles on your faces! Now, I’m Coach Hedge, and I have the burden of being your group’s supervisor for all hours outside of school lessons.” He smacked his baseball bat on the ground, which would have been menacing if he wasn’t even shorter than Leo. “Now, you cupcakes better hurry up to get to the dorms.”  
***

The dorms were a long, irregular room that seemed to be wedged into the building under and angle. It was grey, just like everything else in the place. Instead of sheets, there was a heavy weatherproof sleeping bag that was slapped on top of each mattress. Piper and Leo stayed back as everyone scrambled to get the bunk they wanted, but Piper noticed an old, rusting set of bunks that was mostly isolated from the others by a cleaning supply closet, The closet was under lock and key, which Piper supposed made sense considering the type of kids that went here.  
“Hey, Leo, let’s go here.” She motioned at it.  
“Huh, I didn’t notice that. It’s not wood, either.”  
“What do you have against wood?”  
“Fallamble,” Leo said, as if it explained everything. He clambered onto the top bunk.  
“Hey!” Piper scrambled up after him. It had a good view, being slightly taller than the new, short, wooden frames crowding the rest of the room. She leaned back, almost bumping into Leo. At last, the reality of what she was facing hit her. PIper McLean had been sent to the Wilderness School, a boarding center for troubled youth. She was going to stay here for at least a year, and a silly thought crossed her mind- that this place was so forlorn, it was beyond the reach of any god. Piper pushed it away.  
“I guess this is our home, for a little while.”  
“Well, as they say, home is where the tiny man trying to look menacing with a baseball bat is.” Leo joked.  
“As if you aren’t, like, two inches taller.”  
“Hey!” Leo frowned in mock offence. “So, what’s the deal with McLean? Was I supposed to know that name? Is your dad a car thief like you?”  
“I never stole the car!” Piper sighed. “But no, he’s worse. He’s an actor.”  
“Okay. So, should I care?”  
“No, I hope not. It’s just, you know, some people get a bit starstruck.”  
“Promise I won’t, Pipes.”  
“Ugh, do not call me that.” She tried to glare at Leo, but he just shot her finger guns. Piper sighed, and looking over the dorm, she began to think that the Wilderness school wouldn’t be so bad after all.


	2. Runaway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While making his first attempt to leave the Wilderness School, Leo overhears a conversation

**Part 2- the runaway**

Two months went by, and Piper began to settle into her new home. She saw Leo become instantly adjusted. He wasn’t quite popular, and Piper noticed that he gave off a slight energy of differentness, but even the toughest kids kept him around for the jokes he always seemed to crack. She never saw him actually laugh, though. Piper wasn’t so lucky. Something about Piper seemed to rub several people the wrong way instantly, and Piper’s Cherokee heritage didn’t help either. All that paled in comparison, however, to what happened when they found out that Piper’s dad was Tristan McLean, the famous movie star. 

Piper was sitting on her bunk during the group’s 30 minutes of free time in the dorm, listening to a Naomi Solace song blaring through her headphones. After a while, this place seemed to seem like a trap. So, she did what she did when she was feeling down; Piper unplugged her headphones and climbed up to Leo’s bunk. 

Her friend was sitting there, typing on a computer. She caught a glimpse of what was on his screen, and immediately decided that she would never have any idea what he was doing. Piper asked him anyways.

“Oh, this?” He grinned. “I’m pirating every Tristan McLean movie I can get my hands on.”

“Why would you even do that?!”

“Well, you don’t seem to be too proud of the guy, so I’m finding out what the hype is about.”

“Ugh, please don’t.”

“Just this one.” He pointed to a file entitled  _ The King of Sparta.  _ It took all of Piper’s self-control not to puch Leo’s computer out of his hands.

“That’s the worst one!”

“What does he do in it?”

“He’s um… shirtless. A lot.” Piper was only a little bit satisfied to see the look of intense discomfort on her friend’s face. 

“Yeah, that’s gross. I do  _ not  _ want to see my best friend’s dad shirtless.” Best friend? It had never occurred to Piper that Leo might consider her as such. She herself hadn’t had a lot of real friends, but Leo seemed to be in everyone’s proximity, the guy everyone knew. They had only known each other for a few months, too, but as Piper thought about it, she realised that Leo was her best friend, too. 

“Good. Hey Leo, could you help me with my Science homework?”

“Only if you help me with English. My essay still looks like garbage.” They started doing their work, and Piper was thinking about how sometimes, it was easy to forget that Leo was actually a genius. He wasn’t the “smart kid” stereotype at all, what with his jokes and easygoing attitude, but every once in a while he would make a fully functional drone out of the cafeteria silverware, and Piper would find herself thinking,  _ how am I friends with this guy? _

“Hey, cupcakes! Lights out time, let’s go.” Coach Hedge had taken to calling the group that, at the dismay of many. Immediately, kids scrambled to the bathrooms, a scuffle breaking out along the way. PIper and Leo, however, stayed behind.

“Why are they all so eager to be first?”

“I dunno,” Leo shrugged, and went back to painstakingly rewriting his English. Eventually, when a spot opened up, Piper got ready for bed. She fell asleep listening to the same Naomi Solace song as before, trying to ward off the nightmares. 

Piper woke up in the middle of the night. She moved, hearing the bed frame creak, and knew that something was off. Then it hit her; she couldn’t hear the sound of Leo breathing. The dorms were a cacophony of various noises, but Leo’s resting noises, usually right above Piper, were nowhere to be seen.

Piper winced slightly as her feet hit the cold tiled floor. She climbed lithely up the ladder. Sure enough, Leo’s space was empty, but what Piper then noticed was surprising. The heavy-duty, weatherproof sleeping bag Leo used was just a shred, and the plank that had separated it from the bed frame was scorched. 

“Leo?” Piper called out, quietly. The breeze from the window next to her ear brushed a lock of Piper’s choppy hair over her eye, and when Piper turned to it she noticed that the window, which Leo normally left barely open for ventilation, was completely ajar, and that hanging off the edge was a single curly brown hair. 

Piper looked down. Even Leo wouldn’t be crazy enough to jump out of a second story window, and she couldn’t see where he could have gotten enough bits and bolts to make a parachute. So, Piper climbed down to the first floor balcony. What did she do now? Piper looked around, and the stupidity of what she did hit her. What was she, Sherlock Holmes, trying to find out why her best friend disappeared out the window? Still, Piper thought back to Leo’s story about his past, about how Leo had run away from six foster homes, as he had put it,  _ “whenever I wasn’t quite a fan of them _ .” And although he had never explicitly said it, it was clear that Leo harbored no special affection for the Wilderness School. 

*** 

  
  


Leo had been at the Wilderness School for two months now. Normally, he would already be thinking about running away, looking at the security system, location, and types of fences, gathering provisions. Normally, Leo would have already been ready to leave at a moment’s notice, because a moment’s notice could come at any time. But now, he hadn't even done basic research, except for one thing.

Leo knew he didn’t belong here. Here he was, among self-proclaimed “bad kids.” All Leo had ever wanted to do was just fit in, but deep in his heart he knew that that was impossible. Leo didn’t want to be dangerous, but he was, in a way that even Coach Hedge, their suspicious supervisor, could never conceptualise. Really, Piper was his anchor to the school. From the beginning, she had seemed a bit out of place, the way Leo had often felt. But it wasn’t possible that she was whatever Leo was. He pushed the thought away; Piper was just another temporary friend. Still, Leo found himself growing closer to her.

Hey, she was fun, and a good friend. She seemed to get him, and they stuck up for each other, quickly growing close. Leo and Piper were sitting together on his bunk, trying to do homework and chatting about something inconsequential. Coach Hedge called lights out, and the room settled eventually.

Leo woke up with a start. He couldn’t quite remember why, but his heart was pounding, and goosebumps crawled through his skin, as if trying to break free. The air, usually cold all around him, pressed in as if it was his own temperature. Leo opened his eyes, and saw that he was wreathed in flames. They had already burned through the sleeping bag, and were eating away at the metal that separated him from Piper. 

_ Piper _ , who might get burned to a crisp because of Leo. Just like, all those years ago, his mom had. No. Leo wouldn’t let himself be a monster again. He quickly pounced on the fire, trying to snuff it out with his body. Leo turned around, noticing again the window above his bed. He made a split second decision, and stuck his body out into the cool air. The ground was too far down, so Leo climbed down the first floor. Leo turned, and ran down the entrance hall of the Wilderness school.  _ I didn’t even get to say good-bye to Piper,  _ Leo thought. Of course, he knew that he would have to run away eventually. Leo had just thought that he could say good-bye to his first real friend in a while. Maybe, in his heart, Leo had even hoped she would miss him. 

As he passed Coach Hedge’s room, a whisper made him stop. It wasn’t uncommon for one of the teachers to have to make a late night phone call, but Leo was sure that whoever was behind the gym teacher’s door, it wasn’t Coach. 

_ “Piper McLean.”  _ Leo stopped dead in his tracks. 

_ “To be honest, I’m more worried…. Leo. Valdez, was it? Seems like… threat.”  _ Leo only caught snatches of the conversation, but he tensed up. Whoever this strange man was, he knew about Leo.

His mind wasn’t working as he raced out of the building. Did Piper have a… complication, like him? She didn’t seem harmful. Piper could find her own way, but Leo had to go now. Immersed in his thoughts, he barely noticed that when he ran past Piper herself.

“Leo!” He turned around, in shock. Piper was in her pajamas, some old shirt and a pair of fuzzy pants with little hearts on them. Despite this, she still managed to look menacing. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Look, you know I run away when things get out of hand, and they’re so out of hand I couldn’t stay here if I tried.”

“How do you know that?”

“ I know.”

“Why are you keeping things from me? Spill the beans.” At that moment, Leo wanted to tell Piper everything. He even opened his mouth to talk about Tia Cadilla, but caught himself in time. 

“Look, Piper, I need to leave. I’ll find a way to get back in touch, I promise.” 

“Leo, you can’t go. Nothing's happened! Why are you acting so weird” Leo looked Piper straight in the eyes, and noticed how their color seemed to shift, almost unnaturally.

“Please stay here. At least for a little while longer. For me.” Her words washed over Leo, filling him with the desire to stay. Maybe he could learn to control his freaky nightmares.

But he couldn’t let himself learn to control the fire. 

“You’re not going” It was a command the likes of which Leo had never heard before. Piper put her hand on his shoulder. Leo had always heard that another person’s presence was supposed to be warm and comforting. Not to Leo; everyone felt chilly to the touch. But Piper’s cold hand brought him back to earth. Leo was struck by the thought that Piper would miss him. 

“I’ll… put it off. Stay a little bit longer.” He gave in, not fully knowing why. 

“Good. Let’s go.” They couldn’t walk up to the second floor without being noticed, so they went outside and climbed up the hill. 

“Hey, Leo. Wish upon a star.” Piper was grinning, pointing up at the sky. 

“Hmmm…” Leo knew that it was just a silly superstition, but he couldn’t stop thinking, 

_ Whatever’s out there, just never let me catch on fire again, please. I don’t want to burn anyone else, especially Piper.  _

They walked in easy silence to the dorms, passing all their sleeping classmates and, more often, the empty beds of thoses that sneaked out after hours. 

“Good night, Pipes.” Leo climbed into his sleeping bag, and for once Piper didn’t protest at the nickname. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aand that's a wrap for the exposition! We might also see a familiar face in the next chapter...


End file.
